If you are anything like me and love the Sorcerer class in Diablo 4, you might have played around with the class’s lightning-based spells. Crackling Energy is a Sorcerer mechanic that gives lightning-build spellcasters extra damage bursts.
Visually, Crackling Energy is represented by small blue orbs of lightning that randomly spawn during combat. This mechanic is integral to your Sorcerer’s lighting spells, but the function of these strange orbs is not immediately clear. If you are trying to figure out what Crackling Energy is in Diablo 4, here’s what we know.
Table of contents:
- What is Crackling Damage in Diablo 4?
- Diablo 4 Crackling Energy Build
- How much damage does Crackling Energy do?
- Can you increase your Energy in Diablo 4?
- Diablo 4 Crackling Energy: Is it worth it?
What is Crackling Damage in Diablo 4?
As you build out Sorcerer skill tree, you might pick up lightning skills that spawn Crackling Energy. Passive abilities may increase the number of orbs that spawn during combat or alter the effect of Crackling Energy.
For example, one of my favorite spells is Destructive Chain Lightning, which has a 25-percent chance of spawning Crackling Energy orbs.
By walking over Crackling Energy, you will start to gather charges. You can hold twelve charges, with your current amount being visible just above your action bar. These collected charges will begin to deal passive damage to any enemy that walks within your range, essentially acting as an extra area-of-effect spell in your arsenal.
From leveling up and unlocking or upgrading skills, this passive ability will become much stronger. Personally, I enjoy also using the Mystical Teleport ability which hits two more enemies with Crackling Energy after I teleport.
Related: Best Sorcerer builds in Diablo 4
Specific items, Aspects, and Enchantments can also significantly increase the damage of Crackling Energy and the spawn frequency of orbs.
Diablo 4 Crackling Energy Build
It is difficult to build a Sorcerer solely around Crackling Energy, but there are certain skills and passive skills you can upgrade to significantly increase this abilities’ damage. For your core skills, you will definitely want to pick up Chain Lightning and pivot to Destructive Chain Lightning. This core skill upgrade will drastically increase Crackling Energy spawn rates during combat and creates a consistent source of charges.
For Defensive skills, I recommend picking up Teleport and upgrading to Mystic Teleport. This final teleport upgrade will not only decrease the spell’s cooldown but also allow you to hit an additional two enemies with Crackling Energy.
Lightning Spear, and its ensuing Enhanced and Summoned upgrades, are another crucial aspect of the Crackling Energy build. Summoned Lightning Spear incentives you to continuously pick up orbs, increasing the spell’s damage each time you collect an orb. Finally, Ball Lightning will round out your build with Wizard’s Ball Lightning being the best option for Crackling Energy. This ability will automatically spawn Crackling Energy around enemies that have been hit four times by Ball Lightning.
As with all Sorcerer builds, it is extremely important to also pick up passive abilities that increase mana regeneration. Considering your most powerful spells will be taking up tons of your mana meter, you will need to be able to consistently fill it.
Thankfully, passive AoE damage from Crackling Energy will not take any mana and provide a much-needed mana-free damage option.
How much damage does Crackling Energy do?
Crackling Energy is an ability that will not deal much damage in the early game, though as you progress, you will continue to grow stronger with the help of unlocking abilities. At its base level, Crackling Energy deals around 10 percent of your weapon’s on-hit damage. Crackling Energy hits every 0.5 seconds, giving it immense scaling benefits as you gain stronger gear and abilities.
Without any upgrades, Crackling Energy can hit up to three enemies at a time. Through upgrades, such as Mystic Teleport, you can increase the number of enemies struck by the passive ability at one time. With all proper ability unlocks, you can strike up to six enemies at once.
Can you increase your Energy in Diablo 4?
Crackling Energy has a set amount of charges that you can gain by picking up Crackling Energy orbs that spawn during combat, which is maxed out at 12. Though you cannot increase your max charges, you can increase your damage, the frequency at which orbs drop, and the number of enemies struck by Crackling Energy.
First, you can increase the frequency that orbs drop by unlocking the Chain Lightning ability and upgrading it to Destructive Chain Lightning. This lightning-based ability has a 25-percent chance to spawn Crackling Energy orbs. Since you will be using this spell quite often in your lightning build, this will create a sustainable source of Crackling Energy.
Next, you will increase the damage of your Crackling Energy AoE attack by increasing your overall damage. Though it is difficult to pinpoint, Crackling Energy deals approximately 10 percent of your weapon damage. This means as you increase your overall damage, Crackling Energy will scale to also deal more damage. Finally, you can increase how many enemies are struck by Crackling Energy by unlocking specific abilities such as Wizard’s Ball Lightning or Mystic Teleport.
Diablo 4 Crackling Energy: Is it worth it?
Now that you have read plenty about the build and how the Crackling Energy mechanic works, it’s time to decide if it is worth it to invest in this mechanic. In my opinion, Crackling Energy is only ‘worth it’ if you are going all-in on the Lightning Sorcerer build.
Lightning Sorcerer is a great build if you are looking to deal massive amounts of AoE damage and completely fill your screen with electricity. If are going this route, then it would definitely be worth it to upgrade this mechanic. Crackling Energy provides another mana-free option of damage aside from your basic attack and will be part of your Sorcerer’s arsenal whether you upgrade it or not.
If you are trying for another Sorcerer build, such as Frost, Fire, or a mixture of elements, I would recommend steering away from Crackling Energy. Though the AoE damage from Crackling Energy can be effective in the early game, it is simply not worth upkeeping with upgrades if you do not plan to make it a core part of your build.
